An Taisce welcomes the announcement today by Minister Heather Humpreys to acquire the building at 16 Moore Street (and adjacent houses), where the Provisional Government agreed surrender at the end of Easter Week 1916.

An Taisce has had a long involvement in ensuring that the building would be saved and turned into a suitable museum.

However this is not the first time that the state has acquired this building, as an acquisition was originally announced by Dublin City Council in 2003. The City Development Plan twice incorporated the fact that the building would be saved and turned into a museum.

Then various potentially controversial agreements between senior city officials and developers were reported by a number of press outlets including Village Magazine, Phoenix Magazine, and a documentary on TG4. This combined with the property crash has ensured that the buildings have languished since. We call for the events to be fully explained in order for public confidence to be restored and to ensure that such a mess never again occurs.

Today's announcement is to be welcomed and we look forward to the details and trust that its future treatment will now be worthy of such an important monument.

ENDS

For further information, please call:
Charles Stanley-Smith, Communications, An Taisce Tel: +353 87 2411995
email: [email protected]
An Taisce The National Trust for Ireland
www.antaisce.ie